New NYPD Crime Stats
Show That Crime Is Down In SEQ

If you take a walk down the streets of Southeast Queens this week, you’re most likely walking down a block that is much safer than at this point last year, according to recently released statistics.

According to NYPD statistics released this month, there has been a 15.5 percent decrease in overall crime in southern Queens.

That’s a dramatic plunge, considering the fact that the area was overrun, from the mid-1980s to about 1990, by crack kingpins, drug lords, distributors and sidewalk dealers, local residents said.

Thanks to the efforts of Queens Narcotics cops and police assigned to the borough’s eight precincts, the streets are “walkable” again.

Kids can play outdoors and families have moved back in, making neighborhoods vital, energetic and stable.

And efforts on the part of local politicians have paid off, too. Congressman Gregory Meeks has struggled to bring new jobs to the area, and to revitalize the local economy by fostering projects at JFK Airport that will provide local jobs – and feed city coffers.

The recently released statistics show that the number of crimes reported in the FBI’s “seven majors” murder, rape, robbery, felonious assault, burglary, grand larceny and auto theft, add up to good news for people living and working in the 100th, 101st, 102nd, 103rd, 105th, 106th, 107th and 113th precincts.

Most of the 15.5 percent decrease can be attributed to a 13 percent drop in burglaries, a 23 percent decrease in grand larcenies and a 13 percent decrease in car thefts, the statistics show.

Precincts in southern Queens also reported an almost 20 percent drop in assaults, with 1,104 in 2001 and 878 in 2002.

The fact that burglaries are down in southern Queens has left some local officials and residents in northern Queens scratching their heads.

Precincts in those neighborhoods reported a whopping 37 percent increase in burglaries this year.

Officials have attributed the spike to the fact that affected areas have more private homes – and to the effect on the economy after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We have a great number of private homes in southeast Queens,” a police source said. “But our numbers dropped.

“Maybe we should get together to figure out what we’re doing here that has made a difference,” the source said.

The statistics put southern Queens in second place – topped only by Staten Island – in crime reduction citywide from January through June.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen numbers like these,” said a precinct operations lieutenant in Southeast Queens.

Officials at Patrol Borough Queens South told the PRESS that beefed-up efforts on the part of precinct crime prevention and community affairs officers are directly responsible for part of the decrease.

By providing home and business crime prevention surveys and registration in auto crime prevention programs to the public, police are giving people the tools they need to fight crime at home – and in the streets, officials said.

“When law enforcement is willing to work with the community to prevent crimes – not to just respond to incidents – people feel better, more involved,” the officials said.

“When people are involved in their own safety and quality of life, they are quicker to get involved in other areas – working with kids after school, in community cleanup programs, etc.

“Put it all together and you have a well-oiled machine,” they said.

Police are seeing an increase in the number of suspects who don’t go through a revolving door at borough court houses – a measure attributed to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, officials said.

Brown said Queens prosecutors scour arrest records to determine the current status of past criminal offenses committed by arrestees.

The system works, prosecutors said “because fewer people can slip through the cracks.”

No system is foolproof, they said. “But this has, so far, been an excellent method.”

Things aren’t as glossy in northern Queens, where police are battling skyrocketing burglaries and “personal crimes” that have spiked overall crime in Patrol Borough Queens North by 37 percent, the statistics show.

Crime Prevention officers in precincts throughout northern Queens have been reaching out to the public in recent months, offering tips on ways to prevent burglaries and other personal crimes – and offering to perform no-cost NYPD crime prevention surveys for homeowners, apartment dwellers and businesses.

A 14 percent spike in burglaries in northern Queens, along with a seven percent increase in grand larcenies led to a one percent overall increase in crime in the area, according to recently released NYPD statistics.

The neighborhoods experiencing the increase – Elmhurst, Corona, Bayside, Douglaston and Queens Village – share one common factor…private homes, said NYPD sources.

The 110th Precinct in Elmhurst led all 76 city police precincts in an overall increase in crime, the statistics show.

The 43rd Avenue stationhouse reported a whopping 16.5 percent increase in the FBI “seven major” crime categories: murder, rape, robbery, burglary, felonious assault, grand larceny and auto theft, according to the NYPD stats.

Most of that increase came in the form of burglaries (up 37 percent), assaults, 17 percent, and grand larcenies up 37 percent since this time last year.

Neighborhoods in the 111th Precinct – Bayside, Douglaston and parts of Queens Village – saw an 89 percent increase in burglaries in the same time period, the most in any New York City NYPD command. Statistics show a jump from 107 burglaries last year to 302 in 2002.

Officials are pointing to unemployment, a bad economy and a strain in police resources following Sept. 11 as some of the reasons for the spike.

Borough officials were huddled this week, seeking solutions to the condition, sources said.

Also, released statistics on traffic accidents and fatalities showed a sharp decrease in the number of people killed on Queens roadways.

City Department of Transportation (DOT) and NYPD Traffic Division officials cited major improvements along Queens Boulevard as one of the main reasons for the borough decrease.

Increased pedestrian crossing lanes and construction of barriers to discourage jaywalkers made an enormous difference, said NYPD Transportation Chief Michael Scagnelli.

The upgrade of turning lanes on Northern Boulevard have, likewise, paved the way for safer pedestrian traffic, said DOT spokesman Tom Cocola.

The agency is looking at plans for additional engineering changes on thoroughfares through Queens, Cocola said.

Scagnelli said the NYPD is working on plans to beef up enforcement efforts against speeders.

“The faster they go, the more dangerous they are,” he said. “Speed definitely kills.”